CafePress is the place to become entrepreneur, and own your own t-shirt store quickly and easily. All you need is a computer, Internet connection, and a preferably though not necessary a graphics program and your up and running.
Check back in a day or two and we'll have a full run down of what a CafePress store is and how to start one for free. We'll also discuss some alternatives to CafePress such as Zazzzle, Spreadshirt, and others. We will compare the various shop options, as well as the pro's and cons of each.
We'll also discuss how to price your items. The way CafePress works each item has a base price upon which you can talk on a % as a commission you can select the dollar amount.
If your serious about operating a t-shirt business and have a steady flow of customers CafePres probably isn't the way to go as you can get better pricing and keep more profit for yourself finding your own printing and handling the printing and shipping yourself. However just starting up you can try out some of your designs or phrases on t-shirts and see if they sell.
Normally when you run your own shop you need to order and hold an inventory. The more shirts you get printed the cheaper and most shops won't even set up a printing for you for any less than 12 shirts. CafePress allows you to sell single shirts and CafePress handles everything for you from the point of order through delivery of the product including taking the payment and giving you your cut.
If they are selling well you can either open a CafePress store or you may decide to find your own printer and set up your own website or online shop.
Getting started however CafePress is a great option as they have the platform ie the site for you to list your shirts and display your store. They have some built in traffic and good search engine ranking. CafePress also takes the payment for you so you don't need to have your own merchant account. They also print and ship the shirts and handle all customer/customer service issues. Where else are you going to get all that done without any upfront cost to yourself.
We have recently uploaded some of our own designs. These designs were all created using the CafePress T-Shirt designer program to show you this can be done without even having or being familiar with a design program like PhotoShop or Gimp.
We'll also link to some shirts incase your interested in purchasing one for yourself. Or link directly to the store by clicking HERE
It's Not Cheating If They Look The Same - Then It's A Tribute
The Real Housewives Of New Jersey - Because Jersey Shore Didn't Make Italians Look Bad Enough
This Country Was Founded On Civil Disobedience - Legalize Hemp
It's Not A Tie - It's The Corporate Noose Wrapped Around My Neck
I tried opening a cafepress store. I had some pretty cool designs but never really got any traffic let alone any sales although I never really devoted much time to promoting my store either. To anyone thinking about starting one if you hope to sell anything you need to promote your store and also maybe use cafepress to sell your own brand or something connected to your website because you most likely won't sell anything just hoping that people find you on searches. If that is your hope I don't think it will be successful however your best bet I think would be to make shirts about current events, current funny situatins, etc because I think often times when there's a big event or funny celebrity gaffe in the news right after people may search for funny shirts or memorbilia
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with your assessment of how cafepress works. I also havn't sold a single item though I do think I have some pretty funny cool and relevant designs. I agree I think you need it as an addon to your own blog or brand, I don't think you can count on people searching and finding your designns
Delete